As promised, here is the curd recipe. This is perfect for scones, toast, just to eat, or for an unusual twist on the filling typically used in those little fruit tarts. If bergamots are not available to you, you could always use lemon, Seville orange, sweet types of orange (cut the sugar a bit though), lime, pomello, grapefruit or any other citrus. Enjoy! 9 ounces freshly squeezed bergamot juice 2 tablespoons finely grated zest 1 1/2 cups sugar 6 eggs 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 12 tablespoons butter, cut into 1 tablespoon bits Whisk all but butter into a saucepan. Begin to heat over medium low heat and add all the butter. Whisking periodically, cook until the whisk marks stay in the curd. Pack into sterilised jars (or you can just put this in a jar and put it in the fridge, if you don't want to can it) and process 15 minutes. Makes about 3 cups.
Okay, so this post is really only going to be of benefit to people in California, Brazil, France, Italy and a few other places, but this is basically all I've been thinking about recently. Everyone else can pretend I'm talking about regular sour oranges, or can call their local produce vendor to see about acquiring some of the little guys. I just can't keep it all in! Anyway, I got my case of bergamot oranges delivered (by the way? Not a particularly easy feat when you live in a citrus state and need citrus from another citrus state). I zested and juiced 26 of the oranges the day before yesterday, my head spinning with all the possibilities. It's been so long since my home has smelled like this lovely, spicy, beautiful orange. Because I didn't have enough ice cube trays to deal with the juice (okay... in fairness, to deal w/ the juice and the vegetable stock I'm also freezing 2 tablespoons at a time), I stuck the 10 cups of juice in a container and stuffed it ...
Still going through the bergamots, and it's wonderful. When I made the bars, it necessarily left a lot of rind behind, and of course I couldn't let it go to waste. I cannot imagine the horror I'd feel if I actually had to say I wasted a single part of the most precious fruit in the world. So... Yeah. I thought about it, and I was considering doing the spoon sweets, but I just didn't feel I had enough rind for this (since it was rind from only 3-4 oranges), although I've since changed my mind. Small jars of spoon sweets would be better for me to make anyway, I believe, since I tend to treat them in an addict sort of manner. I thought it'd be nice to make another candy, but I didn't want to really mess with standard candy making this weekend. I am simply drowning in homework. Drowning. Really. Like, as I understand it, Ross misses me. Y'all probably get more communication out of me right now than even my neighbours do. So I thought candied peels would be t...
LOL. I knew he was a freakishly smart kitty!
ReplyDelete(I can't post w/my LJ id because LJ is down and it can't find it!) - SJ
Yes he is! And he has better ideas about the book. I'd considered burning it - at least he tried to get nutritive value from it!
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